Catheters are commercially available in a wide range of lengths, diameters and tip shapes. Because of this wide variety, different packaging has developed for different catheters. Because the volumes of catheters used in different sizes also varies greatly, the packaging costs for smaller runs of lesser used catheters can be relatively expensive. Many catheters are also packaged in various shaped trays often manufactured from a suitable transparent plastic, such as polyethylene trephthalate, which may include a dye to give the resulting product a pleasing hint of color, such as blue.
As stated, the use of multiple different trays or pouches for longer length catheters with different French diameter sizes has been the standard process in the industry for many years. Either an inner pouch with slat or an inner tray is first loaded and sealed, and then this subassembly is packaged in an outer pouch. The process not only takes time, but also adds cost of tooling and different tray sizes. The end user may have to open multiple pouches (in cases where pouches are used) in order to access all of the internal components. This practice can not only be time consuming but also wasteful.
In an effort to reduce the number of different trays necessary to accommodate a variety of different catheter sizes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,121 teaches a universal catheter tray manufactured in a unitary molding to include different recessed channel features to accommodate the catheters in a coiled arrangement.
The present disclosure is directed to solving one or more of the problems set forth above.